SOCIAL ASPECTS OF LAMARCKISM 171 



APPENDIX II 



LAMARCKISM AND THE REGIME OF CASTES 



" The activity of an organ, of a function, of a faculty," writes M. Topinard, 

 one of the few remaining defenders of the Lamarckian theory of the 

 heredity of somatic characters, " has the effect of developing them. Those 

 variations which are most often exercised, and consequently elevated in 

 degree, during the life of the individual, are also those which tend to repeat 

 themselves in the progeny, and, if the same exercise be taken up again, 

 to confirm themselves in the family. A labourer succeeds in raising a 

 weight of so many kilogrammes, and, as a result of repeated experience, is 

 finally able to raise three times the amount ; his son, if he resemble the 

 father, and if he take up the same kind of work, will succeed in raising a still 

 greater weight, and will bequeath in turn to his son a predisposition to carry 

 this muscular development still further. ... It is the same with intel- 

 lectual variations ; these will attain a higher degree, with the help of appro- 

 priate heredity, in the famihes which exercise their brains than in those 

 which depend upon their muscles." ^ 



It is obvious that this theory of heredity, if applied to sociology, must 

 result in a complete justification of the regime of castes — ^that is to say, 

 of the most anti-democratic regime conceivable. We do not say that 

 the democratic regime is an ideal, or that it is in harmony with the laws 

 governing organic development; but if it be, as we believe, in a large 

 measure unscientific, nevertheless it is not the Lamarckian theory which 

 can be employed in order to discredit it; for the Lamarckian theory 

 no longer possesses any validity. We have raised the question as to the 

 social aspects of Lamarckism because certain Socialist writers — ^notably 

 Professor Ferri, in his work on La Sociologie criminelle — ^have taken upon 

 themselves to defend this now exploded doctrine of the transmission of 

 somatically acquired characters. These Social Democratic writers, in other 

 words, are defending the very theory which, if true, must prove most 

 ruinous to the whole democratic ideal; and which, if put into practice, 

 must logically re-establish the regime of castes, the most anti-democratic 

 ideal in existence, but not the less unscientific on that account. 



If, as the Lamarckian hypothesis supposes, certain well-defined differ- 

 entiations of individuals are formed by means of the continuous speciahsa- 

 tion of their activities, we arrive at the doctrine that every man is bom to 

 his profession— that the son of a medical man is the best adapted for the 



^ P. Topinard, L' Anihropologie ei la Science Sociale, p. 294. Paris, Masson, 

 1900. 



